Matt Patricia indicted, but not tried, in 1996 sex assault

Matt Patricia indicted, but not tried, in 1996 sex assault

Over two decades before the #MeToo movement forever changed the way sexual assault cases are investigated, reported and discussed in America, two Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute football players were indicted by a grand jury on one count of aggravated sexual assault.

Snell’s story took an extensive look at the facts of the 1996 case and the evidence against Patricia and his then-teammate and fraternity brother Greg Dietrich.

The charges were dropped when the plaintiff decided not to testify at trial —something that Ted Rutherford, spokesman for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, told Snell is “fairly common” among sexual assault victims.

Legally, Dietrich’s attorney noted, once charges are dismissed “you’re as innocent as the day before you were accused.”

One of Patricia’s defense lawyers, Jeff Wilson, told Snell “it was a ‘he said, she said’ ” situation — which it essentially remains, with most of the involved parties either declining to comment or failing to remember the 22-year-old case.

But describing the assault as a “he said, she said” no more exonerates Patricia than convicts him. Lions president Rod Wood, who initially said he wasn’t aware of the incident, later gave Snell a vigorous defense of Patricia’s fitness to be the Lions head coach.

“When approached by The Detroit News, team president Rod Wood initially said, ‘I don’t know anything about this’ — but hours later said his review of the situation only reinforced the team’s decision to hire Patricia,” Snell wrote. “I am very comfortable with the process of interviewing and employing Matt. I will tell you with 1,000 percent certainty that everything I’ve learned confirmed what I already knew about the man and would have no way changed our decision to make him our head coach.”

Keep it right here at Lions Wire as this breaking story develops.

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